Introduction
Radiocarbon dating and calibrating the obtained date into calendar years is a crucial step in understanding the timing and chronology of past events. An archaeologist is responsible for deciding which sample dates the event they want to date; they are also responsible for taking the sample and filling in the requested sampling reports for the collections. Each laboratory performing the radiocarbon dating service needs to fill in a specific sample list (online or sent via email).
References
A short guide about radiocarbon dating in archaeology for archaeologists can be found here:https://www.archemy.ee/methods-in-a-nutshell/.
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/radiocarbon-dating-chronological-modelling/radiocarbon-dating/#s17Conventions on reporting dates: Millard AR. Conventions for Reporting Radiocarbon Determinations. Radiocarbon. 2014;56(2):555-559. doi:10.2458/56.17455
Sample Selection
This step affects the reliable application of radiocarbon dating the most (Becerra-Valdivia & Higham 2023, 26). Thus, as an archaeologist it is crucial to ask the following questions while selecting the samples.
Chemical preparation of the sample
Data Acquisition
The radiocarbonlabgivesyouthefollowingrawdata: i) radiocarbondate in years BP (Before Present) and ii) uncertainty, thatisthe standard deviationoruncertaintyassociatedwiththeradiocarbondate, iii) labidentifier, for organicmaterialsalso iv) d13C valuewillbeprovided (measuredwith AMS), and forboneyou need tospecificallyaskforv) d13C and d15N valuesmeasuredwith EA-IRMS.
Tocalibratetheradiocarbondatesthere are several programmes available:
- OxCaldeveloped by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit:https://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/oxcal.html
- BCal, developed and hosted by the School of Mathematical and PhysicalSciences at the University of Sheffield: https://bcal.shef.ac.uk/
- ChronoModelisanopen-sourceapplicationdeveloped at CNRS: https://chronomodel.com/
- R-packagesallowingcalibration of radiocarbondateslikercarbon:https://github.com/ahb108/rcarbon and
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Fig. Quality assurance of the ORAU.
References
Becerra-Valdivia, L. & Higham, T. 2023. New developments in Radiocarbon Dating. A. M. Pollard, R. A. Armitage, C. A. Makarevicz (eds), Handbook of Archaeological Sciences. 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 25–35.
Bone: Lanting, J.N., Aerts-Bijma, A.T. & van der Plicht, J. 2001. Dating of Cremated Bones. Radiocarbon, 43(2A), 249–254. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200038078
DNA and 14C-dating: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2021.105452
Textiles:Margariti, C., Sava, G., Sava, T. et al. Radiocarbondating of archaeologicaltextiles at differentstates of preservation. HeritSci 11, 44 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-023-00867-x